The Ocean's Form
by Sweet-Strawberry-09
Summary: Lance had never been completely truthful with the team about himself. His best opportunity to come clean about everything he kept hidden had been when Pidge came clean about being a girl. But, he'd hesitated too long and lost his chance. Keith's secret would have been his best bet but... That hadn't worked out so well now had it. VLD-AU Co-authors: @gdesertsand and @codevassie
1. Chapter 1

Co-written by gdesertsand and codevassie,(those are their tumbler user names) whom without their help this fic would not have been nearly as good or as grammatically correct as it is.

Also, to those waiting on the Ghost Hunt fic, yes I have hit a writers block but I am slowly working around it, hopefully ill have the next chapter up by mid October.

I do not own VLD, nor do I profit from it yada yada, the only things that are ours are the OC characters that belong to me, sand, and code.

Oh and if you want to follow me on tumbler your welcome to, my username is miss-jinx09

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Ch.1 - Surprise?

* * *

Lance had never been completely truthful with the team about himself. His best opportunity to come clean about everything he kept hidden had been when Pidge came clean about being a girl. But, he'd hesitated too long and lost his chance. Keith's secret would have been his best bet but they were already shocked enough. He knew he could trust the team. He knew it. He knew they would accept him, it's just…. His secret might have been a tad too...outlandish to believe or even accept compared to Pidge coming out and Keith being part Galran. A fact he had already suspected the second he'd met Pidge, but he'd never bothered to confirm. It was their choice anyway. Keith on the other hand was… different to say the least. He had still felt human but he had also seemed to be, for better lack of words, another. Considering what he himself was, it wasn't his place, let alone species, to question. Instead he had focused on making a big scene so no one would question his momentary hesitance. Admittedly it irked him a tad bit that the team hadn't even noticed or questioned his momentary lapse, but by then everyone had already been too used to his joker persona to even question his odd behavior. Then again he had been around humans long enough to know how to act; after all he'd had millennias to perfect it; as for the Alteans, they were close enough to humans with their actions and hadn't known him long enough either.

However, as he stared down at the Galran sword that had speared straight through his gut- an injury he knew not even the healing pods on the castle could cure- Lance realized that he no longer had to choose as to whether or not to tell them. Because, as soon as the Galra soldier rips the sword out and is struck down by Keith and Allura; both Hunk and Pidge are swarming him as they are putting pressure on the life threatening wound while he lays on the ground - when did this happen? - He literally feels the pull on his skin as it forcefully stitches itself back together at a speed he _can't_ stop. He can't stop it like all of the other injuries from before, because this injury is actually life threatening and, considering what he is, death isn't even an option anymore. Death would be a reprieve, a gift, for him after living so many ions. He's gathered enough life threatening wounds over the years -accidental and shamefully self inflicted- that he just fucking knows that the blood covered skin of his abdomen is completely free of any markings that would have said otherwise to his /now/ healthy condition. The confused sounds that Pidge and Hunk begin to make as they realise that he no longer has a massive gaping hole straight through his gut and isn't gushing out anymore life sustaining liquid, brings back the reason he always tried to hold off his automatic healing -to the point where it almost pained him more than the actual wounds- until the team could place him into a healing pod or till he could escape into the safety of his own room- that he isn't like them.

"Lance?"

The quiet voice of Pidge brings him back to the present situation at hand. The surprised and confused faces of the yellow and green paladin greet him as he looks at them. He doesn't get a chance to try to answer their confusion as the princess turned blue paladine and the red turned black are barely rushing over with concern written all over their faces. Thankfully. He doesn't want to explain any more times than he has to.

"What are you guys doing?! You're supposed to be putting pressure on the wound!"

He hears Keith yell as he shoulders Hunk to the side and goes to press on his abdomen.

"What the f-"

He heard Keith say as he stares at the very bloody but unmarred body of his. Mouth agape at his surprise, normally he'd laugh at the stupid face he's making but… humor would not be appreciated at this point.

"Surprise?"

He can't help but say as he shrugs with a hesitant smile, his joker persona more of a habit than an act around them. It's all he could bring himself to say as he looked at their dumbfounded and surprised faces. Uncertainty and unease swirling through his newly healed gut.

None of them get to dwell on the mystery that is Lance -thank fuck - as they hear more sounds of Galran sentries near their position.

"You are to explain yourself on the ship Lance."

Is all Allura says to him as he sees her curiously glance at him before they all rush to the extraction point. If Hunk slightly hovers near him more than usual as they run, if Pidge and Allura try to zap and whip every sentry that seem to aim a tad too close to his direction, and if Keith's moves are more violent and ferocious than usual, no one mentions anything of it. Lance knows he definitely won't as he aims down the barrel of his gun and shoots down sentry after sentry never once missing a shot. If his kills are stolen more than once by the other team members, he certainly doesn't voice it, because the tension in the air and the questioning glances that he 'feels' from them is more than enough to force his mouth shut and keep his brain blank of any snarky comments he might have had at the overly protective actions of his team. He knows he scared them, they were already down one paladin, and if he wasn't what he was, they most certainly would have permanently been down another. So he certainly doesn't mention, that that wound he just recently recieved, hasn't even been the worst he's received over his ions of life. And if he pales just a tad few shades, he doesn't acknowledge it because -Holy Quiznak he's going to have to tell him he's not human- he is so not ready for any of this.

He's going to have to tell him that he's not human. Never was, not once, nor does he have an ounce of human blood in him. Because if any of them had waited long enough, they would have noticed that the puddle of blood that had formed under him right after he had been stabbed, and that it wasn't blood anymore, but rather a puddle of water and foam -as salty as any sea found on earth actually- It was by his will alone that his suit remained bloody, he'd given them enough to freak about already. One surprise was enough for today - two if you counted him being stabbed straight through the gut but well… he tried not to dwell on that for too long. Now he just needed to focus on how he was going to explain himself to the team.

After all he couldn't just come out and say "I'm the fucking child of the Ocean or if you prefer, the materialized form of the Ocean's spirit that split itself at the beginning of it's creation because it didn't just want to be bound to one area but rather wanted to explore the land and the stars that were out there.-It's the reason I joined the Garrison by the way- Yes, the very child of the seas in our planet, hell I'm the very reason so many people believe in mermaids. I've been around since when the Seas where once one! And, no I can't die no matter what type of wound I may receive, even if my body is obliterated. I'll just pop back out of the ocean or any ocean really as I've found out… cuz hell will you look at that, it seems I can control other Planet's large bodies of water slash oceans, because everything in the world once came from the same thing right? I guess you can say, I recognize their quintessence as my own. Oh wait, have I not mentioned I have the power to control and bend them to my will like waterbenders. Well… I can do that too?"

Ha ha...yea that wouldn't go over well with them, he thinks to himself as they near the Green lion they had all used to infiltrate the Galran war ship.

'Better think of something else…'

* * *

The blank shocked faces of his team stared back at him.

'...I couldn't think of anything else…'

"Wait so let me get this straight, you expect us to believe you're basically the Ocean's spirit that split itself because it didn't want to stay stuck on the ground?"

Pidge said incredulously as they stared at him.

"Well...yes? I mean I can't make you believe me if you don't want to, but well you all kinda already saw some proof back there..." -if they all shift awkwardly at his words, he doesn't mention it-

He feels awkward now. He's looking away from them all. He knows they're going to question it some more because they're still trying to cope so he just gives up on stopping the blood on his suit from turning to salt water. Keith makes a choked off noise to his right and Hunk makes an alarmed noise from the back of his throat to his left, he doesn't bother looking up.

"I'm just going to give you all time to get used to this alright? See you all tomorrow."

Just as he's about to leave he can't keep himself from saying one more thing.

"Perk of being made out of water, ya know?" He finally says with an awkward laugh as the silence in the room gets to be too much.


	2. Chapter 2

Ch.2

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"Good going Lance, running away like that...Mama would not be proud" he murmured to himself as he let himself flop onto his bed, already drained and dreading the group meeting that was sure to come.

With that he let himself sleep as his mind drifted away to his past.

* * *

The world was primarily engulfed by the ocean when it was created. The spirit of the ocean happily swam around the globe, creating life in its domain. It would greet everyone and everything, for it was all its children. At times the ocean would speak to their friend, the sky; they were both stuck in the same world but at least they had each other. They would trade stories about their everyday lives and the new things that popped up here and there. At first it was just the ocean and the sky; neither of them could contact their other domains but they could still feel them out there.

Then land was born.

Technically, it could be said that the land was the Ocean's child. They, after all, let their extension of their element ease away in order for dry soil to come up and start to form a huge solid mass. New creatures started to grow. Animals with soft furs covering their skins. Plants bearing edible and poisonous fruits. It was a new place. A new world.

But the ocean could not touch the land, just like it could not touch the sky or see all the planets that contained her domain.

They would circle around the mass but never setting foot on it in order to explore. They could only see what their element could touch. But, _Oh how they wanted to explore_ , so the land and the sky gave them a gift. That was when lakes, rivers, falls, and other smaller water forms compared to ocean started to appear within the dry land as rain came to be. They could see all that the droplets touched but...

But it was never enough.

The Ocean started to get jealous when their friend, the sky, would weave stories about the creatures of the land they got to see every day. It was unfair for the ocean. The land was their child but it was the sky that provided the sunlight needed for the new creatures to live, and it was the sky that could see them when they could not.

Envy was not beautiful but it was a seed that knows when to plant itself and grow. The sky and the land began to cry when they realized their intention. They pleaded and begged for them to stop but it was too late. The Ocean wanted to explore the land so bad that they split themselves. Out of the water they formed the body of a human. Oh how it had hurt, but it was worth it when they were finally able to touch the land.

It was in a form of a man but they could change their appearance at will and appear as a woman should they wish. Water, after all, was fluid in nature and could change their form at will. Their dark skin appeared bronze like under the sun but could be as pale as the moon they reflected on clear nights if they wished and their eyes could reflect the clear ocean under a cloudless sky on a sunny day or show the dark soulless abyss that resided in their domain; they were beauty bestowed upon the land; they were a part of the ocean's life. They were Ocean incarnate.

Once formed, the sky and the land were silent, it was odd to not hear their constant chatter but with so much to do they thought nothing of it.

Days, years, centuries would pass and the Ocean would explore their child. The land had developed so many wonders as had its children, but they never strayed too far from its origin, too afraid; of what they did not know.

They would often try talking to the sky and land but not once would they answer.

Lonely after so much time, the Ocean ventured farther than they had ever gone, and consumed its time with more exploration, but the silence never did stop.

As time passed the ocean walking on two legs learned that some humans revered them as the ocean "god" or "goddess". Not just the ocean but other bodies of water too. Heard the names they bestowed upon the personified element.

Chalchiuhtlicue, goddess of water, lakes, rivers, seas, streams, horizontal waters, storms, and baptism, and Opochtli, god of fishing to name some from the Aztecs. Repun Kamui, god of the sea and a name bestowed by the Ainu. Enbilulu, god of rivers and canals by the words of Mesopotamians. Salacia, goddess of saltwater and Neptune, god of sea and water by the Romans.

Ocean was happy at times for this because they knew that humans and animals loved them in certain degrees. When worshipped, the Ocean gave the mortal beings all the blessings they were allowed to bestow upon them. But the creatures were fickle, horrible things as well. The things they did to their own kind were horrible. When angry, the Ocean would unleash punishments like torrents of waves, drought and famine. They did indeed have their awful side, the Ocean had problems reigning their emotions, after all, with their new semblance of humanity came new emotions as well.

The Ocean did interact with the humans; it was what had started all those mythological tales that were now told in modern days. Some of those had semblance of truth while others were just created with wiggling imaginations. It was when they returned to their domain did they begin to create the myths. They'd change their form to match that of its creatures but it would always keep the human-like appearance they had grown fond of. As a result the tales of merpeople, sirens, were created, it was in this form that they made mistakes. They'd accidentally drowned some humans that had ventured to its domain, thinking the mortal ones could explore their domain with no problem at all; it was a mistake. The Ocean loved to sing too and sometimes used their voice to help sailors navigate during their travels. When slavery became a thing, the Ocean used their voice to lead the bad men to their demise and helped the victims by leading its children , fae and animal alike, to help the victims to the closest land they could find.

But throughout it all, not once did the land and sky talk to them; the Ocean would have dwelled upon the reason as to why this was longer, but it eventually stumbled upon something they had never encountered before: love.

The Ocean was adopted by a kind human family, mistaking them as an orphaned child for that was the appearance that they chose when wandering that time. The family named them "Lance" which they were told means as "God-like" and in other tongues it means "Land".

And thus "them" became "he" and "Ocean" became "Lance".

It was a peaceful life, living as a human. The family, while small was caring, thinking of him as one of their own. Despite their meager belongings they not once resented the extra mouth to feed. So as a gift, he would often bring in fish to feed the family, small offerings to help them. And in hard times, he would bring gold that he had 'found while walking by the ocean'. The metal pieces had once belonged to the many ships he had drowned but if it helped the family then it did not matter where it came from. But the peaceful life did not last as long as he would have liked.

It was this time that humans also forgot and condemned pagan beliefs. His old names were now thought as stories of falsity, tales created by imaginative minds, just an old mythology. Religions were used as part and reason of conquests. He had seen it all back in the past. The rise and fall of different empires, the journey to expand the Catholic beliefs, and the wars that happened due to varying opinions.

Even now, Lance still cried for the deceased children that had died during the crusades when he watched their ship traveling through his domain.

Then the witch hunts started.

A painful reminder that despite being "Lance" and trying to grow as normal and "as humane possible"…he was still an immortal.

He could not die.

Death was impossible for him.

As long as there was water there would always be him. Her. Them.

It was a blessing and it was a curse.

Humans believed only in one "God" and anything performed with the hands of humans were works of the "devil". Many females died due to these false accusations. Through fire…and through water.

Lance heard their weeping souls and could only ferry them to the right place of the afterlife as a consolation on his side.

The human family that adopted him died during these so called "witch hunts". First it was the woman he had learned to call as Mother, they dragged her by the hair, treated her like an animal by letting her body be coated by mud. The man he learned to call a Father fought the filthy soldiers and was struck down by an arrow straight to the ground. Next came his sister that he had hidden in their barn shed while he hoped to lead the filthy soldiers away. It was unfortunate that one had come close enough to hear her sobs as most had followed him away. They dragged her out as well and...he wasn't able to reach them before it all happened.

The worst thing…the worst thing was that the filthy pigs called royal guards defiled the women closest to Lance's heart. They defiled them before lighting them on fire. It was then that the skies began to weep Lance's agony; he tried to save them but they had been coated with a liquid that did not come from him. Despite his attempts soon the cries and screams died all the while filled to the brim with pain.

All Lance could see that time was red which was soon followed by darkness.

He could hear their screams, their pleas for mercy, their shouts of anger, but none of those mattered to him, for the family he had come to love was gone, never to return. He felt the arrows pierce his body, the blood gushing out of his body turned salt water and then needle-like as they embedded itself into the eyes of the offenders. Some were drowned by the water that had coated the ground from his tears and the sky. They choked on the water that manifested from the ground, it was not simple water though, for it was coated with mud and worms and flesh and blood…and death. Brave soldiers approached him with proclamations of " _malevolent one, return from where you came!"_ They managed to beheaded him and tear him from limb to limb. They thought they were the victors.

They were not.

It was then that Lance truly found out what he was; he was immortal and forever caged within the form he had once longed for.

Lance returned to life. He was water; he was half of the giver of life and bringer of death in this world.

In the end, he was left kneeling on the ground littered with corpses, cradling the man he once called father, his mother and sister's bodies were gone; he could not even bury them as they would have wished.

Once he returned them to his child, he was left feeling empty and cold. The grey skies had not stopped weeping; they did not stop for a long time.

He could only stare at the sky, his friend, his support, unable to comprehend where his happy little life had gone. He could only stare as the tiny droplets of water from the sky fell on his skin, slowly but surely washing away the red he had caused. He accepted the only form of comfort his friend could offer him, for he had traded their voices the day he had manifested this form.

Sky tried their best to wash away the horror clinging on Lance's body. But it was a futile act of kindness and compassion for the Ocean had already been tainted with red.

As the rain poured down in larger volumes, this was the moment that emotions started to rise in an unimaginable degree. Lance screamed and screamed and _screamed_. He grabbed the nearest bladed weapon he could reach due to blind grief. His hand stretched on the bloodied ground and found a bladed weapon, belonging to one of the soldiers, and proceeded to stab himself with no care for his being. His wounds just healed themselves again and again.

 _Stab_

He wants to die.

 _Stab_

Someone end his life.

 _Stab_

He was no "god".

 _Stab_

He was just an element who sprung to life and is stuck in this form.

 _Stab_

God, if you created me.

 _Stab_

Please, grant me the death I crave.

 _Stab_

He had no beating heart that could be compared to a human.

 _ **Stab**_

But, God, it hurts too much. It hurts too much. It hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts. _**IT HURTS!**_

Lance ripped his own heart out of his chest with his bare hands, hoping beyond hope that it would finally end his miserable existence. It beat once, twice, then returned to a puddle of salt water. Lance stared at it for a moment with wide eyes. Just there…staring at his human hands where the water still clung to the appendage. And just like that…like all energy left his body…Lance let his hand fall slowly by his side. He could feel the mockery of the appendage reform in his chest, once again beating, a reminder of how his heart beat, of how he lived while those he loved were dead.

He stared at the nothingness.

He felt empty.

When morning would come, the only thing the travellers would see was a town of corpses and a huge puddle of water and blood. Years would come and go but it would take a long time for the scarred immortal's heart to heal.

Instead he retreated to his domain once again, hoping that maybe, he could merge with its original form and finally hear its friend and child's voice once again. For they were the only ones that would never leave him, that would never die. He had wanted this form so much so long ago, but now, he cursed it with all his being, because while he had found love, it was also ripped away. And now alone he swam in the endless abyss of his home, never once hearing the voice of the one who was there for them since the beginning nor the voice of his child.

-/-


	3. Chapter 3

So I know some of you have been waiting for an update with this story but you all should know I have stopped using fanfiction and have moved on to the site: Archive of our own story/ because quite frankly, it is much easier to use for me. The third chapter for this story is posted in that site, I am sorry for the inconvenience if you want to continue reading this story i would recommend going there.


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